The present invention relates to making metal carbides which have a high surface area and which are useful in certain catalytic processes.
A wide variety of processes are known for making metal carbide compositions. For example, German Offenlegungsschrift No. 2,634,731 speaks of making metal carbide-nitride powders by using a triazine or pyrimidine compound as the carbon and nitrogen source. More recently U.S. Pat. No. 4,789,534 to R. M. Laine teaches making transition metal carbides from certain metal amide precursors. These metal amide precursors can be prepared from lithium amides and the corresponding metal chlorides or by the reaction of a silyl amide with a metal chloride or fluoride.